LEXINGTON, Ohio — There were seven minutes remaining in the third quarter when Africentric point
guard Alexis Parks dribbled across midcourt, glanced at coach Will McKinney giving a signal and
stopped in her tracks.

Just like last season in the tournament, Bucyrus Wynford was playing a 2-3 zone defense against
the Nubians in a Division III regional semifinal. And just like last year’s game, which Africentric
won, McKinney was going to have Parks hold the ball until the defense switched back to man-to-man.
It didn’t matter that his team was leading by 11 points.

“Here we go again,” a frustrated Wynford fan shouted. “Play ball!”

Africentric patiently waited out Wynford for a 52-32 victory last night and now needs a victory
to reach a third straight state tournament and sixth overall.

The Nubians (24-3) will meet Archbold (24-2) at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday at Lexington for the
regional championship.

McKinney was wary of Wynford three-point shooters Meghan Harrer and Beth DeLong and the inside
play of 6-foot center Brenna Quinn.

“Bucyrus Wynford is a good team,’’ he said. “You let them get enough possessions and they will
sting you. Our game plan was to get up by 10 points and hold on to this ball.’’

The difference between this game and the one in 2013 was McKinney has installed more plays to
run off the delay.

When Wynford cut its deficit to 28-23 with 3:11 left in the third quarter on two three-pointers
by Harrer and a driving layup by Ellie Richmond, Africentric held the ball for a final shot. It
turned out to be an open three-pointer by Sierra Harley with 1.5 seconds left off a pass from
Darianne Seward.

“I was confident in that shot,” Harley said. “I’m used to taking shots at crunch time.”

Harley scored 17 points, making 7 of 13 shots.

“You can say the points resulted from the team chemistry,” she said. “My teammates were finding
me.”

It didn’t faze Parks that she had to hold the ball for stretches of 1 minute, 20 seconds in the
second quarter and 1½ and 2½ minutes of the third quarter. McKinney told the players in practice
that it was a possibility.

“This year, we have different plays (off the delay) and we move without the ball,” Parks said. “
Coach said we had to make them defend us. I thought we were shooting too many jump shots
anyway."

The Nubians scored the first 10 points of the fourth quarter, beginning with a steal and layup
by Seward and ending with a free throw by Harley to lead 38-23 with 5:29 left.